Cycling in Ponte Vedra, Florida

The A1A in Ponte Vedra

We went by this golf course...

Closer to Ponte Vedra there were these large, beautiful homes covered in tropical
trees and live oaks

This looked like a Frank Lloyd Wright house being built

Closer to St. Augustine, there were several natural preserves

Chloe loved the beach and found several shark teeth

Wednesday, July 26, 2011

Jackie and I met up with his classmates at Sallie's grandmother Mame's house on the beach at Ponte Vedra, Florida.  It was Mook's idea to gather his former roommates together this summer since everyone was turning 40 this year.  We had a great time even with our 12-1/2 hour road trip to get there.  We gave Chloe a shout out for making it down there without one "are we there yet?"  I have to give the shout out to the bag of stuff I had in the car as well as the portable dvd player. 

We brought our road bikes and Chloe's mountain bike and rode pretty much everyday.  In the middle of the week, Amy Trocchi offered to watch Chloe so Jackie and I could get in a long ride.  He'd planned on us making it all the way to St. Augustine but we realized that would have been twice as long as we told Amy and over 60 miles round trip.  We headed out on the A1A south from Ponte Vedra to the outskirts of St. Augustine.  It was a cool 75 degrees and overcast when we left and at our pit stop on the way back where we enjoyed a snickers and Coke,  The closer we got back to Ponte Vedra, the sun was coming out and my mile ticker registered at 39.6 in the driveway.  The A1A has a bike lane all the way to Miami and was great.  There were a TON of cyclists on the road back and forth as well as a tandem bike.  Boy was I glad we didn't do the 60 miles, it was so stinking hot at the end of it we wouldn't have made it.  And there was only one gas station on the trip for a pit stop and boy were we glad to get that break in.

For the first time, I think I logged in right on map my ride and here's a link:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/43384884

Aquapac

The aquapac

Friday, July 29, 2011

I've been meaning to blog about my purchase just before the Mighty Mite Triathlon.  I was reading blogs about how fellow insulin pumpers deal with the pump, the stress, fueling etc at a triathlon and read that some folks had used an Aquapac.  So I looked it up and ordered one right before the local triathlon.  Luckily Kara and I were to swim the day after the $85 water resistant pack arrived in the mail.  I wanted to give it a dry run before race day.  It does take a little time to figure out how to use the clamps (read the instructions carefully because it tells you to turn each clamp one at a time, then lock it down into place) but it worked perfectly in the pool.  Fellow pumper Joy Shepherd has never taken her pump off when she gets in the pool or hot tub.  Which is remarkable after blog after blog reported that others have lost pumps in the water after it gets wet because of a crack they didn't know about.  Medtronic has labeled all of  their pumps as not water resistant. 

The aquapac and sensor worked perfectly at the Mighty Mite Triathlon for me.  One thing different I'd do next time is to take a second and take the pac off the pump when getting on my bike.  I didn't take the time to do anything but shove it back into my shirt after I checked the blood sugar reading on my sensor.  Next time, I'd take it off because of it's awkward size during the run, that thing was HUGE in my shorts running those 3 miles.  I took 2:05 minutes off combined transition area times this year, ran less than a minute slower, about a minute faster on bike and took over 4 minutes off the swim which gave me an over better time this year of 7 minutes!

All in all, the aquapac is an excellent choice for triathletes with an insulin pump.  Check them out at http://www.aquapac.net/.

Tailgate to Celebrate Mighty Mite Finish!!!!

2011 Mighty Mite

Hey BBC and anyone else interested- We want to tailgate after we finish the Triathlon this Saturday in lovely downtown Forrest City. Becca, Neall, Keeli, J.Harmon, Stan (if Beth doesn't go into labor before), Michael, Martin and I are all registered and ready to swim/bike and run. We are hoping we don't have another 100+++ heatwave. So, our tri starts at Village Creek at 8am where we swim. We then hop on our bikes and ride (13 miles) the backroads to EACC. We then jump off our bikes, put on our running shoes and run on down (3miles) to the finish line in Forrest City. We plan on having beers to celebrate around 10:30 or 11. If you finish a triathlon, you don't have to follow the "No Beers Before Noon" rule, btw.

So even if you don't enter, come for some post race celebration. GO BBC Triathletes Go!!! -Kara

Sunday, July 17, 2011

A big thanks to Kyle, engineer of the BBC, for showing up and supporting his fellow cyclists!  We had a great time yesterday and everyone was thrilled with their finishing times.  Jackie reported the swim buoys were placed farther than last year, I report that by doing the side stroke and Kyle's boy scout back stroke, I looked Lake Dunn in the eyes and made it outta there without panic, Becca reported she got a penalty for minding her own business on the bike,  Dr. Price decided that he better go see someone about his shoulder, Beth hasn't had that baby yet (shes' a week overdue dang it) and overall, everyone had a good time.  The tailgate was fun and I'm lookin forward to the next triathlon as long as the run isn't longer than a 5K!   I'm looking forward to your comments BBC!  -Keeli

Mighty Mite, Forrest City

Mighty Mite Tri 2010
Becca, Neall, me, Kara, Jackie, Martino

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Jackie, Kara, Martin, Stan and I have all officially entered for the 2nd time for the Mighty Might Triathlon July 16 in Forrest City!!  We've all have been training for the swim and bike.  And I've heard that Stan, Martin and Kyle have been biking and running!  I'm looking forward to reporting on how it goes this year.  I've been researching how to get my transition area time lower without having to disconnect my insulin pump as well as continuing swim lessons at the Fogelman YMCA in downtown Memphis.  I have an aquapac coming in the mail, $80 later....just kidding...we'll see....I think Becca and Neall are also doing the tri...can't wait for it!  Martin, Kara, Jackie and I are cycling to the country club 10 miles this Friday at 7 am, swimming 600 yards, running 3 miles then cycling back the 10 miles.  It will be a great challenge since Kara and Martin's Bianchi's bikes are in the shop and they'll be on mountain bikes (like I used for a year before gettin my own road bike...).  Maybe we all should ride on our mountain bikes, that should be a challenge to say the least....

Here's a link for fueling for a tri: http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Fueling_for_triathlon.htm

-Keeli

Bike, Swim, Bike



Kyle's bike he made....yes, he made this...look at that seat and cup holder...



Kyle's bike he made of a Schwinn bike..He'll have to report on the make and model

The beauty of the BBC is we always help each other with
our bike troubles...here Kyle, who is the fixer/bike maker,
adjusts Becca's tire back in its rim...

This was a fabulous concert....U2 in Nashville...amazing!

It was rumored U2 will returf the field after the concert...

Holy Cow, that's a lotta folks in Vanderbilt's Stadium



We' ve been to many-a-outside concerts over the years but this was overwhelmingly large and professional....



This is the clearest photo of Bono I could get, dang camera

Saturday, July 3, 2011

I've been meaning all week to report about last week's bike, swim, bike before church.  It was a perfect morning to ride to Village Creek and Lake Dunn was in perfect shape.  I think it was a good experience for Martin and I especially, he's doing his first swim and I'm doing my second tri swim after my near death experience a year ago.  It was a ton of fun and I'm looking forward to the Mighty Mite this year.  I hope nobody has any injury between now and then. 

Jackie and I are just back from Nashville where we saw U2, one of the best concerts I have EVER seen.  I loved their meaning on so many issues during the concert.  It was great and over 3 hours long!  Our seats were on the top row and cost just $35, I'm proud of that.  The 360 degree rotating screen showed everyone in the stadium what was going on and then it emerged on the stage like a bee hive.  Amazing.  See ya'll at the pool this week! Keeli

PS. I've gotta publish and come back and figure out why my computer uploaded photos so weirdly....I'll fix it once published....